For my final blog post, I wanted to do it over my current favorite Taylor Swift song, August. It touches on themes of infidelity, which makes it easy for me to pull parallels from the lyrics and The Great Gatsby narrative. The song August is on the Folklore Album, which was written from different perspectives from a love triangle that involved infidelity. The song August is written from the perspective of a girl named “Augustine”, a character Taylor had created. Agustine was the girl in the love triangle who thought she had fallen in love with a man who was already in a relationship.
The lyrics describe her emotions, as she beleives she is in love, but knows it is doomed to fail. The lyrics stating,
“‘Cause you weren’t mine to lose
You weren’t mine to lose, no
But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
‘Cause it was never mine”
She is describing how he was never hers to lose. Similar to the situation with Gatsby and Daisy- Daisy was never Gatsby’s to lose. He had created a persona to attract her and begin again what they had before he had left for war. Yet, the reality of their affair was that Daisy never truly loved him- nor did she Tom, but Gatsby never really had Daisy. He had her admiration over his possessions, but she was never his at all. If anything, Gatsby belonged to Daisy- not the other way around.
Even before the war, Daisy would have never married Gatsby due to his economic status, so even after she had gotten married before the narrative started. The lyrics still apply. She was never his to lose to Tom, and was never his to come back and claim despite his efforts.
As tragic as this is, the novel itself is a modern tragedy. The storyline is not designed to have a perfect ending, and neither was Taylors song.
The song “August” reminds me of a peaceful rainy day whenever I listen to it, and though the lyrics itself are tragic, I am glad I got an opportunity to compare it to the novel- as it is my current favorite song.